Sultan Amet-khan. Mature years of the "Tatar King" and "Flying Tatar"
В previous article we talked about the youth of one of the best Soviet pilots - Sultan Amet-khan, his path in Aviation, the first victories in the Great Patriotic War.
Today we will continue this story and talk about the famous 9th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment, in which the hero of the article fought until the end of the war, the new successes of Amet-khan, his service as a test pilot at the Flight Research Institute (named after M. Gromov, Zhukovsky).
"Regiment of Aces"
On March 7, 1942, a new combat unit was created on the basis of the 69th Air Regiment – the 9th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment. At first, its pilots fought on Yak-1 fighters, and in August they received its new modifications.
Yak-1B, serial production began in September 1942
During the Battle of Stalingrad, on the initiative of the aforementioned previous article The best pilots were transferred to this unit by the commander of the 8th Air Army, Timofey Khryukin, which is why it even received the unofficial name of "ace regiment". By the end of the war, the pilots of this regiment had made 15 combat sorties, destroyed 152 aircraft, 558 guns, 50 locomotives, 31 railcars, 43 ammunition depots, 2 fuel tanks, 15 boats, 6 barges, 6 tractor units, 4 cars, 665 carts, 430 horses, 765 enemy soldiers and officers. 12 pilots of this regiment received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, four of whom became Heroes twice. By the end of the war, Amet-khan brought the number of aircraft personally shot down to 770, and he scored another 25 aerial victories while fighting in a group. He became a two-time Hero of the Soviet Union, a holder of three Orders of Lenin, the Order of Alexander Nevsky, the Order of the Red Star, and the Order of the Patriotic War, 49st degree.
But let's go back to 1942 and see that, among others, the pilots of the 9th Air Regiment included Mikhail Baranov (at that time the most successful Soviet fighter pilot), Vladimir Lavrinenkov, Amet-khan Sultan, Ivan Borisov (who became the wingman of the hero of the article), Ivan Stepanenko. Lidiya Litvyak and Ekaterina Budanova also served in it for some time.
Lidiya Vladimirovna Litvyak in a 1943 photograph, she was called the "White Lily of Stalingrad", 12 personal victories and 4 in a group, one shot down balloon, died on August 1, 1943 - already as part of the 296th (later - 73rd Guards "Stalingrad-Vienna") air regiment. Her husband - Hero of the Soviet Union F. Solomatin died on May 21, 1943.
Ekaterina Vasilievna Budanova, wingman of the 296th Air Regiment commander N. Baranov, with three to six (according to various sources) personal victories and up to five in a group, died on February 5, 19.
The hero of our article was appointed commander of the 3rd air squadron of the 9th air regiment in October 1942. He fought in this unit until the end of the war. In the skies over Stalingrad, Amet-khan scored 6 personal victories and shot down 7 enemy aircraft as part of a group. He was shot down once, but saved himself by jumping out of the burning aircraft with a parachute.
In total, during the Battle of Stalingrad, the pilots of the "ace regiment" shot down 40 enemy aircraft. After that, the 9th air regiment took part in the most grandiose air battle of the Great Patriotic War, which unfolded in the skies over Kuban from April 17 to June 7, 1943 (it was described in the article Air battle over Kuban in 1943). During one of the air battles, Amet-Khan shot down three bombers, which was the "last straw" - the command of the 8th Air Army proposed awarding him the title Hero of the Soviet Union. Amet-Khan was characterized as follows:
"Guards Captain Amet-khan Sultan, squadron commander of the 9th Red Banner Guards Fighter Odessa Regiment, has flown 359 combat sorties since the beginning of the war, and fought in 79 air battles. He personally shot down 11 enemy aircraft and 19 in group combat. He has one ramming of a Ju-88 aircraft."
The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded to Amet-khan on August 24, 1943.
Hero of the Soviet Union Certificate
By the way, it is said that after this award, Amet-khan began to attribute the planes he shot down to his wingman, Ivan Grigorievich Borisov. This was a common practice in that war – wingmen who covered the lead fighter (and sometimes even shielded it with their aircraft) rarely managed to shoot down an enemy plane themselves, but their merits were obvious to everyone. The same Amet-khan said about Borisov:
"This is my shield. A reliable, faithful shield."
Sultan Amet Khan (right) and his wingman Ivan Borisov
As a result, after 2 months (October 27, 1943), I. Borisov also received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. During the war, he was also awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Red Banner (5), the Order of Alexander Nevsky, and the Order of the Patriotic War, XNUMXst degree.
After the end of the battle over Kuban, fierce battles began near Taganrog, Melitopol and in Crimea.
Two captains of the 9th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment – Heroes of the Soviet Union A. Alelyukhin and S. Amet-khan
In August 1943, the 9th Fighter Aviation Regiment received American P-39 Airacobra fighters.
Pilots of the 9th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment – four twice Heroes of the Soviet Union and five Heroes of the Soviet Union, the photo was taken against the background of the Airacobra. Third from the right is Amet-khan, to his left is the wingman of the article's hero Ivan Borisov, second from the left is Vladimir Lavrinenkov.
Amet-khan (sitting on the left) among squadron commanders of the 303rd Fighter Aviation Division, autumn 1944.
Meanwhile, in May 1944, in the presence of the hero of the article, his younger brother Imran was arrested in Alupka, who had betrayed his country and became a member of the auxiliary security police "Schutzmannschaft". There was no doubt about his guilt, but the parents of the brothers were not touched, and it was not because of the intercession of the famous pilot - Hero of the Soviet Union: families in which a Crimean Tatar woman was married to a man of another nationality were not considered Tatar. The authorities limited themselves to a temporary (until the end of the war) resettlement of the parents of the hero of the article to Dagestan, which could not be considered deportation.
Amet-khan continued to serve in the 9th Fighter Aviation Regiment of the Red Army. In January 1944, he and his wingman I. Borisov forcibly "landed" at their airfield a very successful German liaison and rescue aircraft "Storch" (Fieseler Fi 156 Storch), which was produced in Germany until the end of the 1950s.
In the summer of 1944, together with other pilots of the 9th Air Regiment, he mastered the domestic La-7 fighter, which he flew until the victory over Nazi Germany.
"La-7" - fighter of Amet-khan Sultan, photo taken in spring 1945.
By the way, it was during his retraining on the La-7, in the summer of 1944, in Moscow that he met Faina Danilchenko, who became his wife and gave birth to two sons – Stanislav and Arslan.
Amet-khan with his wife Faina
He achieved his last aerial victory on April 29, 1945, over the Berlin Tempelhof airfield – he shot down a German Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighter. On June 29, 1945, he was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union for the second time. As you can see, the betrayal of his younger brother did not affect the decision to award the hero of the article.
Guard Captain Amet-khan in the summer of 1945.
Major Amet-khan (right) and Captain P. Golovachev – twice Heroes of the USSR, autumn 1945.
After the war
Until February 1946, the hero of the article continued to serve as assistant commander of the 9th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment for airborne gunnery service. Then, Stalin issued an order according to which the best ace pilots had to undergo training at the Air Force Academy in Monino. This training opened up excellent prospects for career growth for them.
However, ironically, such a turn of fate became fatal for Amet-khan. The fact is that the education he received in his youth was clearly insufficient for studying at such a serious and prestigious institution, and, according to Fyodor Arkhipenko, the young teacher literally burst into tears when checking the entrance exams of three famous pilots (Heroes of the Soviet Union) - Amet-khan, D. Glinka and himself. As a result, Amet-khan wrote a statement that included the following lines:
"Soberly weighing the level of my knowledge, I do not see the possibility of further study. Therefore, I ask to be expelled, since I am not sure that I will endure five years of study at the academy."
After that, he was discharged into the reserve. Left literally "with nothing", he fell into severe depression and even began to abuse alcohol, which was never noted for him - either before or after. Front-line friends helped - former commander of the 8th Guards Air Army Timofey Khryukin and Vladimir Lavrinenkov: in February 1947, Amet-Khan was able to get a job at the M. Gromov Flight Research Institute in Zhukovsky.
Test Pilot
Test pilot Amet Khan, 1960s.
So, Amet-khan Sultan was again "in his place": he was awarded the third class of test pilot in 1949, and in 1952 he became a first class test pilot, and in 1961 he received the title of "Honored Test Pilot of the USSR". In peacetime, he was awarded the Order of the Red Banner and the "Badge of Honor".
His colleague, 1st class test pilot I. I. Shelest, wrote:
"Amet-khan Sultan was a pilot who succeeded in everything he attempted. Neither I nor anyone else knows of another such test pilot."
In the summer of 1949, the hero of the article took part in the first automatic aerial refueling in the Soviet Union on a Tu-2 aircraft. Then, in the early 1950s, he tested winged missiles, placed on board the flying bomb, and in a critical situation refused to eject and managed to land the prototype. In 1953 he received the Stalin Prize of the 2nd degree.
A flying projectile, a prototype of the KS-1 (Comet) cruise missile, which the hero of the article tested in the courtyard of the Amet-khan Museum in Alupka.
He received the State Prize for his contribution to the creation of the first domestic multi-channel stationary medium-range air defense system, the S-25 Berkut air defense missile system.
"Berkut" is an abbreviation made up of the surnames of BERIA (Sergo, the son of the famous People's Commissar) and KUKSENKO, leading engineers of Special Bureau No. 1 (its "successor" is the "Almaz-Antey Air Defense Concern").
It must be said that the hero of the article was simply a record-holder in terms of getting into emergency situations, each of which could have ended in disaster. And when the test pilots were suddenly denied risk pay, Amet-khan, upon reading the order, wrote on the document:
"My widow does not agree."
The scandal was big, the matter reached Stalin, who issued a resolution:
“I agree with the widow of Amet-khan Sultan.”
But in 1953, if we trust the aforementioned Sergo Beria, some “shady” thing happened story, which I really don't want to believe. The People's Commissar's son tells about his father's fall and Amet-khan's unexpected call:
"On June 26, 1953, my father was at the dacha. I left earlier, somewhere around eight, and an hour later I was in the Kremlin with B. L. Vannikov (my father's office was in the opposite building). At four o'clock in the afternoon we had to report to my father about the preparations for the nuclear explosion. We had to discuss whether it would be a suspended bomb or a missile... At about twelve o'clock an employee from Vannikov's secretariat came up to me and invited me to the phone: the caller was twice Hero of the Soviet Union Amet-Khan, who had tested planes with my equipment.
"Sergo," he shouted into the receiver, "I have some terrible news for you, but hold on! Your house is surrounded by troops, and your father has most likely been killed. I have already sent a car to the Kremlin gates, get in it and go to the airfield. I am ready to transport you somewhere before it is too late!"
"Sergo," he shouted into the receiver, "I have some terrible news for you, but hold on! Your house is surrounded by troops, and your father has most likely been killed. I have already sent a car to the Kremlin gates, get in it and go to the airfield. I am ready to transport you somewhere before it is too late!"
Sergo Beria, who escaped on a hijacked plane, could only feel safe abroad. He himself wrote:
“It wasn’t particularly difficult to hide in, say, Finland or Sweden.”
I really don't want to think that Amet-khan, who had repeatedly demonstrated his loyalty to the Soviet government (even after the arrest of his younger brother), could cover his name with shame by betraying the Soviet Union and thereby crossing out all his considerable services to our country. Especially since the version about the murder of Lavrenty Beria at the dacha is known only from the words of his son. And no questions were raised about Amet-khan, who allegedly suggested that Sergo flee abroad, during the investigation.
Let's return to the hero of our article.
On November 12, 1958, during tests of the ejection seat for the Su-15 and Su-7 on the MiG-9UTI aircraft, the powder cartridge of the ejection mechanism exploded, and the aircraft cabins were flooded with kerosene from a punctured fuel tank. Test parachutist V. Golovin was trapped in the deformed seat. Despite the high risk of fire, the hero of the article also refused to eject and still managed to land the damaged aircraft.
Despite his age, Amet-khan continued to test aircraft. This is what he looked like in 1970:
Amet-Khan in a photograph from 1970
Sultan Amet-khan died on February 1, 1971, before reaching the age of 51. This happened during the testing of a new jet engine in the crash of a flying laboratory equipped on a heavy twin-engine Tu-16 aircraft. By this time, Amet-khan had mastered 96 types of aircraft, and his flight time was 4237 hours. He was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow.
Grave of Amet-Khan, Moscow, Novodevichy Cemetery
It cannot be said that this distinguished pilot was forgotten in the USSR. Streets in Simferopol, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don, Melitopol, Kazan, Zhukovsky, Alupka, and some other cities, as well as an avenue and airport in Makhachkala, are named after him. Monuments and busts can be seen in Yaroslavl, Alupka, Feodosia, Makhachkala, in the Dagestani village of Vachi, and in his father's native aul of Tsovkra.
Amet-Khan, bust on the Alley of Heroes in Feodosia
The portrait was placed on one of the Soviet envelopes.
In 2022, a silver coin with a face value of 2 rubles was also issued. Nevertheless, Amet-khan remains a "second-tier" hero, "one of many", and tourists visiting Alupka are surprised to learn that one of the best Soviet pilots of the Great Patriotic War was once born in this city, some even find time to visit the museum dedicated to the hero of the article.
Amet Khan Museum in Alupka
A model of one of Amet-khan's fighters (La-5FN) at the museum of the article's hero in Alupka
However, the Simferopol airport, which was named after the hero of the article (which seems quite logical), changed its name following a popular vote. Now it is the airport named after Ivan Aivazovsky, another famous native of Crimea (Feodosia), who still has nothing to do with aviation.
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